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  • AME Department Seminar

    Wed, Dec 01, 2010 @ 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM

    Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

    Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars


    Speaker: Jun Zhang, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University

    Talk Title: Ratchets in Fluid Transportation and in Biological Locomotion

    Abstract: I discuss several cases where a broken symmetry—either broken spontaneously or by construction—leads to ratcheting behavior in systems where dynamic boundaries interact with moving fluids. Two examples feature reciprocal forcing combined with geometric anisotropy of boundaries. In one case a solid body can be made to hover stably, and in another, a fluid is efficiently pumped. I will also discuss the dynamics of a symmetric wing whose forward flight follows from a symmetry breaking instability, and how this dynamics is affected by the introduction of more biological realism.

    Host: Dr. E. Kanso

    More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming

    Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 100

    Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

    Contact: April Mundy

    Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming

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